Aadhaar botch up may lead to malpractices

Chennai: The union government could have mandated seeding the Aadhar cards in Permanent Application Number (PAN) cards. But, a central government affiliated organisation in the city is purposefully avoiding the inclusion from PAN applicants, therefore inviting malpractices. There seems to be a clash in the rule as United Trust of India (UTI) at Guindy, which takes in PAN applications, is avoiding the mention of the Aadhaar card number and is striking out the numbers written by the applicants.

However, the nodal agency, Central Board of Direct Taxes has made it clear in an RTI reply that, "Aadhaar details of name, date of birth & gender should exactly match in PAN applications". V. Gopalakrishnan, who filed the RTI application said, "The applications with Aadhaar number was struck by the officials. By doing so, the organisation is protecting the bank details of the applicants. By seeding in the Aadhaar number, malpractices can be arrested."

"It is an easy procedure to change names in the Tamil Nadu gazette and apply for a different PAN card. But, if the Aadhaar number is linked, such law violators can be easily identified," Gopalakrishnan added.   Form No 49(A), the application for allotment of PAN clearly leaves a subsection for the Aadhaar card number on the second page. Another major grievance of the PAN card applicants is that the Aadhaar cards with initials get invalid. "While the department accepts driving license with the initials, Aadhaar cards with the same is not considered a valid proof," he said.

UTI’s coin ban, an irony:

Applicants also complain of how United Trust of India has been rejecting Rs 10 coins, stating that it is unacceptable in a private bank, they use. "Officials concerned were unwilling to accept Rs 10 coins, as a payment. This is disastrous," said the RTI activist, who had paid Rs 110 as the application fees (which is Rs 107).  In a grievance petition addressed to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (Income Tax), the department has asked the consumer to use the online payment method, rather than delivering a proper reply.